Editors note: This is a rumor site. We have no affiliation to Sony! We collect rumors from the web and from our sources. Rumors sometimes become real and sometimes not. If you only want to get real and certain news please visit the official Sony website. Every rumor we post has a ranking value. In this case the rumor has the “SR4” value because we received it from a trusted source. This source has been right in the past (but it doesn’t mean he knows everything!) and will hopefully be right with the A700 successor rumor.

The rumor:

–

SonyAphaRumors learned that the A700 successor (the A800?) which is probably going to be unveiled in Q1 2010 should have following features:

1) Pellix (or pellicle) mirror

Photonotes.org explains very well what a pellicle mirror is: “ An SLR reflex mirror which is partially transparent and does not move.

One of the advantages of traditional moving-mirror SLR cameras is that the photographer can look through the viewfinder and see what the actual taking lens is seeing. The primary disadvantage is mirror blackout – when the mirror has flipped up to expose the film then nothing can be seen through the viewfinder. Mirror blackout, though brief at high shutter speeds, can nonetheless be a problem for sports and other action photography.

Cameras with pellicle mirrors have fixed half-silvered mirrors that both direct light to the viewfinder and to the film surface. They therefore eliminate mirror blackout whilst preserving the advantages of an SLR. They are also much quieter, as there are no mirror slap sounds or blur-inducing vibrations caused by mirror motion. Pellicle mirror cameras can also shoot almost instantly – unlike most SLRs thereâ€™s no lag time resulting from having to move the mirror out of the way. This rapid-fire capability also permits faster film transport mechanisms in some cases.

Pellicle mirror cameras have two drawbacks. First, the mirror must be kept scrupulously clean because light passes through it to the film surface. Second, because some of the light is being diverted up to the viewfinder thereâ€™s less light available to the film. Pellicle mirrors typically cost 2/3 stop of light and the viewfinder is also a bit dimmer.

A pellicle is a membrane or a thin film and refers in this case to the very thin reflective coating on the mirror.”

Next Post:

Previous Post:

Hm… hey – the pellicle mirror is made so that we could use ot OVF, not EVF! why would it have electronic view finder while you can make the optical?

Other than that – great news! Hope it’s true… only with OVF ;)

admin

That was exactly my question Sky! My speculation is that the mirror will reflect only a little bit light to the phase detection system and the electronic viewfinder will take the information from the sensor. But that’s speculation only.

Tom

Hmmm… Most of the time I use ISO 100-200 to have as low noise as possible. But now even more light will be “stolen” with this!? I am doubtful… And is video that important really? I don’t miss it on my A100. See what I will upgrade to next year. :)

Shatun

I also had that question in my mind till I read about phase detect autofocus in video…
After that I start belive for around 5% that it could happened.

To me that sounds more like an alpha-mount video camera than a DSLR. Agreed it makes sense to have EVF if the mirror only splits between main sensor and AF detectors. There would be too much loss to include optical viewfinder too.

Sky

good point admin – that would make some sens.
Tom – I wouldn’t worry. Or we’ll get the ISO 60 settings or we’ll have what admin told :)

Rush

Too good to be true….
I want to believe but really ?

admin

Hi RUSH! You only should believe it when Sony will make the official announcement. I hope the rumor is true and I hope Sony find the way to not loose much light with the pellix mirror.
cheers!

Rush

so a950 will have all of these (except 10fps) + FF ?
I am happy I waited :)

admin

The a950 will also make you a coffea when you wake up in the morning :)

Pedros

I feel that this rumour is a missed shot … sorry.
I just can’t understand why Sony would focus that much in video features and loose features that are much more appealing to the enthusiast photograph. Let’s not forget A7xx it’s not a usual consumer grade camera… it’s an enthusiast.
If they want those video features, than, the compact video cameras from sony would be the best bet.
And, sorry but, with an EVF… what’s the purpose to have a mirror at all? Check the Panasonic G1, GH1 …

So, sorry, but i won’t even take this rumor in consideration …

Rush

Great!
As long as a950 comes out in Q1 2009 as well :)

Jack

Perhaps it will come in 2 versions like the recent releases; one with video and a pellicle mirror, one with a pentaprism and no video.

Sky

Pedros – I don’t know what are you talking about when you say “loose features that are much more appealing to the enthusiast ” other than OVF. And why Sony would focus so much on video? Perhaps because it’s the greatest company when it comes to professional video market? By securing itself an DSLR video camera it makes it less possible to loose shares in camcoders market.

Jack – that would be truly a great news! but I’m afraid it won’t be that easy… the pellicle mirror camera with EVF and AF sensors using light from the main mirror would have quite different build than traditional DSLR with pentaprism.. yet there’s still some hope…

Kiril

One comment from me the AF system requires two (2) mirrors!!!! Check out the A550 pictures in DPreview there is a small mirror behind the big one that directs light down towards the AF sensor.

So the phase detect AF cannot work while video is being shot because there will be some dimming of the picture and likely a big black rectangle in the middle.

I consider this post to be complete fake! pellicle mirror system has advantages since the big mirror need not move and frame rate can be very high e.g. 10 fps

Isn’t there more than one mirror in front of the sensor?
The big one is our main mirror but there is also a second and smaller mirror at the back side of it that provides image to the AF sensor unit.
I’m confused about eliminating this second mirror…

I saw someone up there saying that this sounds more like an Alpha mount video camera… well, truthfully, coming from someone in the field, Alphas are losing major ground because they don’t have video, despite the massive caveats in the current models that do offer it (M4:3 excepted, of course). Sony has stated time and again that they want to do video “right” by which they mean “act like a Handycam.” Personally, I think it’s clear that they have done a pretty good job focusing on their DSLR product, making them excellent photographic tools without having to worry about the video function. I believe that if this rumor is true then they are going in exactly the right direction. If you’re going to go hybrid but not go mirrorless then the next best thing IS the pellicle mirror system. The AF can see, the shutter can haul a$$ with practically zero in-camera vibration, making the Steadyshot Inside even more effective, and, frankly, the perhaps 1/2 stop of underexposure can be more than accounted for in any number of processing algorithms. We all know that the Bionz processor prefers a little underexposure any way. Oh and no mirror movement means better battery life as well. LMAO am I reaching?

I’m with you guys on the EVF… I don’t see it unless they have some sort of magic up their sleeves where EVFs are concerned, though I happen to like the EVF that Olympus has for the E-P2… it’s actually pretty amazing, even in low light. I could get used to it no problem and I wear glasses with major correction LOL.

As for the pentaprism, well, the EOS 1nRS had a pretty traditional prism, though it was pretty big and bright. Hell that whole camera was big and heavy… I’ll be interested to see what Sony has to say about it. If anything, I can understand at that point why an EVF would take place… nothing like an autogain feature to brighten up the image when shooting with no mirror movement! If they can keep the refresh rate high (which they could do by using a secondary sensor again, something from the EXMOR R class perhaps?), it could be a winner.

Personally, even though it’s a rumor… I hope even half of it is true. I want to see Sony pushing the envelope. I’m tired of Canon and Nikon’s same old same old (even the EOS 7D is same old same old for the most part). The DSLR needs to evolve and Sony’s the company to do it, if they’ve the guts.

/rant :)

kiril

Yet again may be Sony are about to build something unseen before. The pellicle mirro may be there to support the Af only. It may be able to flip (no real need to fix it) when you shoot low frame rate.

Video is anyway low res so you get an extra stop or two by lowering the resolution down from 14 MPs to 2 MPs

May be credible rumor. Dun know.

RichT

Makes perfect sense to me, probably the most interesting spec is the 10fps, that suggests Sony is prepping a high-speed DSLR sensor, hopefully they won’t have to use anything coarser than a 2×2 binning mode for video with no line skipping. Even better would be the option for a windowing (crop) mode for video. Wonder how many megapixels it’ll have? If true 2010 should see much better video modes in cameras that use this sensor

All in all this sounds like the rumored GH1 killer more than a DSLR refresh

Catastrophile

false rumor.

Sky

I love your optimism Catastrophile. ;)

YalÃ§Ä±n AYDIN – the AF doesn’t need two mirrors to work – what you worry about is specific light polarization created by two mirrors, but it’s not a problem at all as AF sensors can work with any type of light – both polarized and not. It’s just about how you’ll build them :) Besides that – the film cameras with pellicle mirror had autofocus and noone was worried :)

Young

The Pellicle mirror is a interesting idea, but just 1/3 of the light reach the sensor and 2/3 the OVF.
Sony should have a new and better AF sensors because just would work with 1/3.

Sony is delay the a700 successor because the video and it will come with a really AF system.

Mateo

LOL
Back to the past

Ineedaname

Woo pelicle mirror is the word of the day. You know that a evf makes perfect sense if there useing this type of set up. There is a slight light loss and one way to compinsate for it is to use a evf can help is to amplify the small amount of optical signal and make it brighter, ofcourse there will be added noise in the evf but dont forget, sony is the world leader in video.

I also wished that the a700 replacement would not carry a sensor in the body, but instead have that area inside hollowed out. This way we can buy a sensor module that fits on the mount and all the conections of the sensor and af system is some how in that module than th lens goes over this set up. However sony and all of the major dslr manufactures would panic because the mount can have a mount over it with a sensor and have conectoons for any lens even habe AF work with any lens based on the sensor/mount change ability.

the pellicle might dim too much an OVF in order to preserve the light that goes to the sensor.. but having a EVF might actually make that dimming unoticable by increasing the “brightness” electronically.. just a thought

Rush

“…coming from someone in the field, Alphas are losing major ground because they donâ€™t have video…”

I totally agree two of my friends bought 5d mk2 and when I asked them if they considered sony a850 for such a low price? The first thing they complain is the lack of video. Not lens, Not image quality, Not noise.

Rush

I wish Sony gives us a switch to go back and forth between
Pellicle shutter & Flapping Shutter.

There are times when this (rangefinder like) low noise shutter is a must and willing to sacrifice a stop of light.

But other times I wouldn’t care much about shutter noise and prefer to have bright viewfinder
sony a900 is famous for.

If this is all true and if we have this option I think we have a dream camera here…..
(of course assuming that a950 gets the same treatment…. :) Give us a950 Sony !!!)

entoman

Let’s hope the a7xx follows the a700 / a850 / a900 layout, with the same control positions and same professional build quality and lack of gimmickry. Please don’t let it be a “more advanced” a550 type camera. We want TOOLS NOT TOYS.

Ideally I’d like a pellicle mirror for instant shutter response, lack of vibration and mirror-slap, and would happily sacrifice half a stop to get it, providing that the viwefinder is BIG and BRIGHT.

As for the sensor, 15 megapixels is enough for me, the most important thing is to expand the ISO SENSITIVITY range, and make sure the IMAGE NOISE is a lot lower than in the a700.

Flash sync of 1/500 with existing ring-flash and macro-flash units would be a big bonus.

You can keep video, flip up EVF, scene modes and other gimmickry, just give us an honest hard-working durable camera with a 3.5″ monitor, and a850 handling.

To Sony I would say – make sure you fix the scroll-wheel problem this time though, and please please please release an internal focussing 100mm macro lens that will autofocus silently, rapidly and reliably at macro distances, and will work on full frame and APS-C bodies..

Any idea if the iSeries A7 hardcase works with the A7Rii + GM70-200 F2.8 + 2x Tele? http://www.skbcases.com/music/products/proddetail.php?f=&id=860&o=&offset=&c=147&s=147 Looks like the picture shows the 70-200 F4??? Also interested in any other suggestions.

Ok so when i shoot i like to use jpeg and raw so i can transfer some of my photos to my phone and do Instagram and such. For the creative style i have always done nutural because I use Lightroom for all of my post processing. When I transfer the full sized jpegs to […]

I am wondering how many of you guys run a blog. Me and my wife started a travel/lifestyle blog and most of the photos are with my Sony A7R2. http://crepesandcameras.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/co-incidentally-colombo.html Do subscribe, like/ share/comment.

I wanted to update the firmware of my a6300 from the original 1.00 to 1.10. So I downloaded the updater tool from Sony and ran it on my Windows 10 computer. I read public recommendations on a website (forgot which) and adhered to all instructions that the tool itself told me. The camera went into […]

Contact me! (Andrea)

Disclaimer

Disclaimer: SonyAlphaRumors has no affiliation with any of the equipment manufacturers mentioned on this site. Please visit their official websites by typing the specific brand name and adding .com after it in your browser. All trademarks and brands belong to their respective owners.

Here is the definition of the word “rumor” according to Merriam Webster dictionary:

Pronunciation: \ˈrü-mər\
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English rumour, from Anglo-French, from Latin rumor clamor, gossip; akin to Old English rēon to lament, Sanskrit rauti he roars

Date: 14th century
1: talk or opinion widely disseminated with no discernible source
2: a statement or report current without known authority for its truth
3 archaic : talk or report of a notable person or event
----
Content Copyright If you want to use any image from this website you have to ask for permission. You cannot copy more than 20 words from any of our posts. And you have to define the source with "Source: SonyAlphaRumors.com" (working link).

By continuing to use the site, you agree to the use of cookies. more information

The cookie settings on this website are set to "allow cookies" to give you the best browsing experience possible. If you continue to use this website without changing your cookie settings or you click "Accept" below then you are consenting to this.

What are Cookies?
A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers that is stored in a temporary location on your computer to allow our website to distinguish you from other users of the website.
If you don't want to accept cookies, you'll still be able to browse the site and use it for research purposes. Most web browsers have cookies enabled, but at the bottom of this page you can see how to disable cookies. Please note that cookies can't harm your computer. We don't store personally identifiable information in the cookies, but we do use encrypted information gathered from them to help provide you with a good experience when you browse our website and also allow us to improve our site.
You can watch a simple video from Google to find more information about cookies.

Disabling/Enabling Cookies
You have the ability to accept or decline cookies by modifying the settings in your browser. Please note however that by deleting our cookies or disabling future cookies you may not be able to access certain areas or features of our site.
For information about how to disable cookies in your browser please visit the About Cookies website.